Snakes Have Forked Tongues
by baghetti
Summary: This is the story of Nagïna Zoe and it explains, however indirectly, why Harry is a Parselmouth.
1. Hermione & Ginnie

Hey Guys!  
I couldn't get this one out of my head, it follows "Gemini: The Twin" which is currently incomplete...(sorry!)...  
It doesn't matter if you haven't read it though, it still kind of clicks...  
  
* * ** * *  
  
Ginnie flicked her fringe out of her eyes and stared straight ahead at the clock.   
Three minutes.   
Three minutes until complete freedom, forever... She had forgotten all about the worries of last week and the scary dream she had had with-she didn't want to think about it...  
Two minutes.   
She wondered what her new 'family' would be like. This, what was her name? -Hermione-Had to be better than the girls over here, and all the other foster families she'd had to put up with.   
One minute...   
Thirty seconds...   
Twenty...  
Ten...   
Five...   
Four...   
Three...   
Two...  
One...   
DONG  
The large bell outside rang loudly. There was the faint calling of her name that sounded off in the distance...  
"Ginnie! Ginnie Black, are you listening?"  
"No." She sighed, what a dumb name, "Ginnie"; of course, the staff had refused flat to call her Nagini, "Ginnie, is not listening, and never will be." This sort of backchat would have been considered shockingly rude at any other school, but the teachers at St. Mary's were a little more patient. St. Mary's Girls' School was an orphanage school full of, mostly, bullies (other than the all hated nerd, Marie).   
Fourteen-year-old, Nagini Zoë Azalea Black had recently received a letter-a letter that shocked every member of the school staff.   
Ginnie had to admit that she had been shocked too. Surprisingly, it wasn't the contents of the letter that she was shocked at. It was more detailed than that.  
  
Her bags were packed as she sat on her bed. She took the crumpled letter out of her pocket and read it quietly to herself.  
  
"Dear Nagini,  
  
Thanks to much pleading on your father's part, and particularly because of certain perplexing mysteries going on in these times, you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry.  
  
We realise you have no home outside your current school. You will be staying with the Grangers, a Muggle family, and their witch daughter, Hermione.  
  
There is no need for a reply. The Grangers will meet you at Kings Cross Station at precisely two o'clock.  
  
We hope you enjoy the remainder of your holidays.  
  
Prof. Minerva McGonagall,  
Deputy Headmistress. "  
  
She quickly folded the letter and slipped it into the bag that contained all of her mother's old junk.  
  
"Hey Millie!" she said, as her roommate entered the dorm.  
  
"We'll all miss you, you know."  
  
"I know! Guess I better go, then."  
  
"Bye, miss you!"  
  
"Glad to be leaving," Ginnie muttered to herself as she left the room, heaving a trunk and carrying a large backpack, with the words "Gin 4 Josh, Always" written on it in bubble writing.  
She would only be missing three people from here in the East End. Her two best friends, Faith, and Katie, and her boyfriend, Joshua, who she knew had come to say goodbye.  
  
* ** * *  
  
Hermione Granger said goodbye to Ron and kissed Harry on the cheek-what on earth for? She thought about her amazing year, forgetting the thrill Harry must have had in the Triwizard Tournament. She was thinking about Viktor. She found her parents.   
Next to them, standing with one hand on her hip, was a girl Hermione had never seen before. The girl had long black hair that fell far past her waist; a fringe covered one half of her forehead and her eyes, that seemed to have no colour at all, were almost clear. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt that bared her midriff, dark jeans and platform-soled trainers. Other than her eyes, the most interesting point of her appearance was a pendant hanging around her neck on a silver chain. It appeared to be a star inside a circle, glittering with colourful gems, a tiger's eye giving the pentagon of the five-pointed star an amber core.  
Hermione shot a questioning look at her parents: as soon as she had started Hogwarts, her parents had promised not to bring in any more homeless children for fostering.  
"Hermione, this is Ginnie-" began Mrs Liz Granger.  
  
"Nagini." It was the girl who cut in.  
  
"Yes, well, she'll be staying at our place, just for the holidays."   
This irritated Hermione. How was she going to get her homework done with *her* around? As soon as she had started Hogwarts, Hermione's parents had promised not to take in any more foster kids!  
"Is she a-?"  
"Yes, dear, now come along, get out of this stuffy place and we'll get home!"  
Mrs Granger hurried Hermione and Crookshanks out of the station and into the fresh air. After all of her stuff was loaded into the car, Hermione pulled her mother aside and asked for an explanation.  
"Hermione, please be patient. Ginnie is an orphan, sort of, anyway, she is starting your school next year and your headmaster asked for her to stay with us over the holidays."  
"Fine."  
Hermione hopped in the car. She could see Ginnie, or whatever her name was, muttering the words "Muggles and Mudbloods" and sighing. Zoë then turned to face Hermione and said, in an eerie, barely audible whisper, "We're going to have an interesting summer, aren't we?"   
It was from that day on, that Hermione could say that she could see something positively *wrong* with that girl.  
******  
  
It was the sixth week of the holidays. Hermione and Ginnie got along ok, even though Hermione appeared to avoid Ginnie a lot, like she was some sort of creature that needed to be handle with care and avoided at all costs. On the Tuesday, their Hogwarts letters had arrived. Ginnie's was a lot shorter than Hermione's was. This was possibly because Ginnie's didn't have a rather large list of books on it and because hermione had been made a prefect.  
  
There was a question Ginnie desperately wanted to ask Hermione. On the day the girls got their letters, Ginnie found Hermione writing her own letters in her room. She knocked on the door.   
"Coming!" Hermione called back.  
Ginnie walked in anyway.  
"What you doing?"  
"Writing."  
"To who?"  
"My friends."  
"Names?"  
"Harry, and Ron, and Viktor."  
"Wow, and their all just...*friends*?"  
"Well..."  
"Don't worry, I won't delve into your private life, I just wanted to talk." This was where Ginnie stopped, she couldn't word it, well she could try, but the words wouldn't come out of her mouth. "You know Sirius Black, right? He was in Azkaban, yeah?" A good start, at least, "Did he escape, or was he let out, or, or what?"  
"Um, I don't think...er...maybe...Is there something your not telling me, Gin?"  
"I have a feeling there's something that *you're* not telling *me*, am I right?"   
  
******  
  
  
Ta! (For reading and reviewing, that is! [You will R & R, won't you..? I'd be very unhappy if you didn't...]) 


	2. On With the Show

***Straight into the story...  
  
"Ok, you tell me first, I promise I wont tell anyone, ever." Hermione was begging; it was so obvious.  
"Ok, if you say so. Two things you must promise first, though." Zoë was giving away a story that had been bottled away for thirteen years. She had always known the truth, lied about it to keep it a secret. And here she was, telling her darkest secret to a newly made prefect! "You have to promise not to tell a soul, or freak out or faint or anything. All clear?"  
"Why would I freak out and faint?" Hermione asked.  
"It's not that it's scary or anything, it's just...I'm guessing you've heard a lot of stories about this, I just want you to know that this is the true version, ok?"  
"Yes."  
"Right, on with the show." As Zoë began her story, Hermione could feel herself slipping into the image, as though she was standing right next to Zoë, hearing all the sounds, the yells, the words of hate being barked across the room.   
She could almost see the faces; they were slightly blurred, as though everything had been pushed just off focus.   
Hermione had no idea that she had been situated into the heart of a spell, worked by a dark witch.   
Hermione just listened.  
"It was October thirtieth. I could hear them yelling downstairs, Mum and Dad. Mum was upset because Dad couldn't be there for my birthday, Ministry work and everything, you could see it across her face, in her eyes."  
Hermione jolted out of the dream for a split second, and as though she hadn't noticed them before, she looked straight into Zoë's eyes. Instead of being the clear grey they had been the first time she had met the girl, the eyes were a deep sapphire blue, and they seemed sad.  
"It ended up that Dad left, went to do whatever work was set out for him, Mum stayed home looking after me, my birthday's Halloween and I'd be turning one, there were flashing balloons everywhere, they were flashing-if I can remember- gold, red, silver and green. Mum was sitting by the fire, writing in a book, this one, actually." Zoë held up a book that she'd taken from underneath her pillow. 'Dreams' was written across it in curly letters. "There was a knock on the door. Mum opened it, knew who it was. She had said 'Tom'-that was all; Mum walked straight into the living room-with the stranger following her-sat right next to me and traced a symbol over my forehead with her finger; it stung and I cried.  
'I don't do bribes, Tom,' she whispered  
'Tell me.' He had replied."  
Hermione knew who 'Tom' was, had found out in her second year at Hogwarts, but she didn't know why Zoë's mother would call him by his first name.  
"'Ok, Tom. Just don't blame me if everything goes wrong. There at Godric's Hollow.' I may have only been a baby, but I knew what was going on. It doesn't take brains to know when someone should be keeping these things secret."  
Hermione gasped. All this time she'd thought otherwise, for over a year, she'd thought she had had the story set straight, and here she was being told otherwise.  
"It's pretty drastic, really, having your own twin sister spill on you, she did it for good, though, in whole, even if she was a dark witch at heart. That's the terrible thing though; he had a habit of killing people, Tom Riddle, he killed my mother, I can still hear the words, I can still see the flash of green light, hear the bang of party balloons popping under force, see the figure of my mother, falling to the floor in a heap. Then he turned on me. He raised his wand and shouted words and after that all I can remember was a burning pain in my head.  
They found me, the Ministry, took me straight to an orphanage. Terrible life ever since, huh?"  
Hermione didn't reply: she was in shock. She composed herself enough to ask Zoë, "What about your father?"  
"Oh, well what you know is true, after that. If it takes you that long to put two and two together, then you'll never know what happened to the father of Nagïna Zoë Black, why he ended up in Azkaban.  
Right then, when are we setting off to Diagon Alley, I really need to get a cat, I hate marmalade tabbies!"   
Although Hermione looked a little hurt from Zoë speaking of Crookshanks like that, it would probably be better if they did do something to take there minds off of the most boring summer this century.  
  
*** please review! This seems harsh, but to make sure people are actually reading my fics, I'm not gonna write anymore until someone reviews it. K? 


	3. Author's note

A very long author's note that shouldn't be in here at all really...  
  
  
I'm trying to keep this fic as close to the real books as pos.  
I've been "researching" and I found these rumours...well maybe not "rumours";  
JKR has said that one of Harry's fans will die (not as in the air con will conk out!).  
JKR has said that someone will get powers late in life.  
When asked "why not write about harry's whole life?", JKR said, "You seem pretty confident he's not going to die."  
Someone also suggested that Voldemort wanted James and Harry dead because they were in Godric gryffindor's direct line.  
(N.B. this does not necessarily mean that in my fic, Harry will die, etc)  
It my seem like I'm rambling, but, since I never finished my "Gemini" story...(sorry)...I might want to explain what happened.  
Gemini-(an important character in this fic, even though her name is only mentioned a few times)-'s backgroung is as misty as Nagini's, but basically, she is the twin of James Potter and she married Sirius black, she is the niece of Tom Riddle (a.k.a Voldemort) although he doesn't know that.  
  
When Voldemort (Nagini's mother called her 'Tom') tried to kill Nagini, he couldn't, because of 'gifts' she inherited from her mother. Her mother let Voldemort kill her because she thought that she had fulfilled her purpose in life.  
  
Thnx 4 listening (readin, woteva) Review my story!! 


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